The Lions said this week that the Vikings defense is as good as they’ve seen recently and noticed not much has changed for the unit since Minnesota swept the NFC North series last season.
In the teams’ first meeting, the Vikings only recorded one sack of Stafford but were credited by press box statisticians with eight hits of the quarterback, who underwent X-rays on his chest after the game.
The second time around, Minnesota recorded seven sacks of Stafford and was credited with 13 hits in Detroit.
The Lions made changes to their coaching staff the following day, firing Offensive Coordinator Joe Lombardi and replacing him with Jim Bob Cooter, as well as putting Ron Prince in charge of the offensive line.